Doing This In College Will Boost Your Income By 36% - But It Will Also Make You Dumber

Years ago, we reported on the shockingly effective college-to-Wall Street pipeline established by Sigma Chi Epsilon, a fraternity whose members made it a goal to build a “little fraternity on Wall Street.” By offering insider tips, as well as offers to intervene on candidates’ behalf, members of the fraternity have helped populate banks like J.P. Morgan, BofA and Wells Fargo with fellow alumni – helping them beat odds three times steeper than the Princeton admissions rate.

Now, a new study by researchers at Union College in Schenectady has confirmed what that story appeared to suggest. That despite the constant distraction from academics that fraternity membership represents, students who join reap the benefits of the associated professional network for years to come, MarketWatch reports.

Of course, these benefits come with a tradeoff: The study showed that being a member of a fraternity also makes you dumber.

“Being a member of a fraternity in college lowers a student's GPA by approximately 0.25 points on the traditional four-point scale, but raises future income by around 36%, according to a paper, “Social Animal House: The Economic and Academic Consequences of Fraternity Membership,” published by two economists from Union College in Schenectady, New York. “For this reason, joining a fraternity may be a rational decision that improves the long-term prospects of an individual student despite its damaging effects on a student’s grades,” the paper concluded.”

These results suggest that fraternity membership causally produces large gains in social capital, which more than outweigh its negative effects on human capital for potential members,” they concluded. “These findings suggest that college administrators face significant trade-offs when crafting policies related to Greek life on campus.” They surveyed 3,762 alumni from a liberal Northeastern college who work full-time and also adjusted for the statistical impact of age, gender and ethnicity on a person’s income.”

While fraternities have frequently been the subject of unflattering press coverage in recent years – the Penn State hazing-death case being one example - about the culture of rape and dangerous risk-taking that fraternities perpetuate, the study’s results offer a strong argument for universities to keep Greek life programs: namely, that the organizations offer at least some long-term benefits to members.

“Despite the partying and troubling headlines that fraternity life involving hazing and sexual assault in recent years, supporters of fraternities say there’s another side to Greek life. Among them, they provide academic support for students and social connections that can last a lifetime. Studies at the American University in Washington, D.C. and other colleges have found that Greek life results in higher GPAs. Fraternity alumni programs, LinkedIn groups, online communities all help foster strong social ties that are designed to last a lifetime across different generations of members of the same fraternity.”

The study’s authors explained that they controlled specifically for the impact of social connections by correcting the data to factor out other behavioral tendencies of fraternity life – like excessive alcohol consumption.

“Alcohol-related behavior did not explain much of the effects of fraternity membership, the latest study found. Fraternity membership lowers grades by 0.18 to 0.42 points. Controlling for alcohol-related behavior reduces this estimate only slightly - by about 0.03 to 0.05 points.

“This suggests that, despite its visibility, alcohol consumption plays a relatively minor role,” the paper concluded. Because the data was collected from workers from ages 25 to 65, it incorporates the effect of Greek membership on lifetime earnings - not just on earnings in the first job after college.

As MarketWatch explains, other studies have also proven that alcohol consumption has myriad negative repercussions for individuals, most notably by lowering the odds of attaining full-time employment after graduation.

“However, heavy drinking just six times a month reduces the probability that a new college graduate will land a job by 10%, according to researchers at Tel Aviv University and Cornell University published in the peer-reviewed academic journal “Journal of Applied Psychology.” Alcohol is a depressant that impacts motor functions and brain activity. The authors suggest that each individual episode of student binge-drinking during a month-long period lowers the odds of attaining full-time employment upon graduation by 1.4%.”

In summary, the study effectively proves the old saying: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” But then again, we imagine readers – particularly, American readers - have long suspected this to be accurate.

Everyone in the College of Education has a 4.0. It was that way during my 2nd stint at University. 25-30 from the College of Engineering for Honor's Convocation. Over 500 from the College of Education.

Frats are just a great beacon of the types of people who typically succeed in today's corporate culture:

They will tolerate serious abuse and bury their pride (hazing), will denigrate themselves in sickening ways to fit in (hazing), will kiss ass to the higher ups to be a member of the organization (as a Pledge), and are generally very malleable because they so desperately want to fit in.

Sounds like the Greek System self selects the ideal Corporate Cog to me!

GPA is pretty meaningless. I never had an employer verify my grades, or even that I had a degree. I could have just pretended and nobody would have ever known.

The networking is valuable but you can get that by just learning good people skills and being sociable. Get a sales job to force yourself to learn cold calling and talking with people all day. Network by asking for informational interviews in the field you want.

Certainly not; it's a measure of ambition more than anything, as confined to an academic environment. 4.0ers I knew were somewhat ill-adjusted socially, and, yes, hooray for them with their studying kung fu, but I learned more valuable skillz (I think) in other areas in college, non-academic in scope (pussygrabbing, for example).

Seriously though, different types of 'intelligences' exist, some having little to do with retention of facts or info.... or even anything intellectual at all....

While this is indubitably true, I have found that while many people have the intelligence to excel in academia but instead focus that brainpower on some other investment (social networking, trade skills, travel, investigative reporting), those who do not have that kind of intelligence can be easily recognized by their inadequate life skills performance and seldom amount to much in any field. Simply put, a genius may put his/her genius to work in any number of ways, but the world is still full of idiots.

You sound like my kind of guy. I can't stand left wing western Jews, but I've always got on well with Israelis. Hard line, pragmatic, nationalistic, chauvinistic in terms of their ethnicity... I respect that.

The weasely 'Judaism is love and racism is evil but we are going to undermine our host societies and keep a lock of positions of power while telling everyone we love equality' jews make me sick.

"Of course, these benefits come with a tradeoff: The study showed that being a member of a fraternity also makes you dumber.

“Being a member of a fraternity in college lowers a student's GPA by approximately 0.25 points on the traditional four-point scale, but raises future income by around 36%, according to a paper, “Social Animal House: The Economic and Academic Consequences of Fraternity Membership,” published by two economists from Union College in Schenectady, New York. “For this reason, joining a fraternity may be a rational decision that improves the long-term prospects of an individual student despite its damaging effects on a student’s grades,” the paper concluded.”

The data on earnings literally contradicts the titular assertion of this article.

No matter how wonderful your GPA was, you failed to make your next move your best move and didn't join a fraternity.

Now you are on ZeroHedge in the comments crying about rich niggers not pledging allegiance to a flag like you're in grammar school or some shit.

I do not even like fraternities and think they are corny as fuck, but even I could see all those articles about the dangers of hazing were written by some hating ass faggots.

I ain't about to drink a bucket of liquor and piss and vomit mixed together, or get spanked with a paddle, so what the fuck do I care if some goof wants to do that gay shit? If he dies, he dies.

How the fuck this nigga get admitted into a prestigious college and not know he would die of alcohol poisoning and hypothermia from drinking a gallon of Jack Daniels and spending the night outside in a baby pool in the middle of November?

Correlation, not causation. A short, scrawny, ugly geek like me who did well academically in university would never have been accepted into a fraternity. For those same reasons, I'm less successful than my peers who look a lot better in a suit than I ever will.

I'm doing alright though, I guess. I made it this far, I'm not in debt, and I might be able to retire in something better than a cardboard box some day.

There is nothing like shared criminality and the law of Omerta to bond a band of brothers who rise together through the corporate hierarchy - and enrich themselves in the same way they shared rape and plunder in college.

I'd like to see a study on what fraction of CEOs and other high corporate brass were once fraternity members.

"Years ago, we reported on the shockingly effective college-to-Wall Street pipeline established by Sigma Chi Epsilon, a fraternity whose members made it a goal to build a “little fraternity on Wall Street.” By offering insider tips, as well as offers to intervene on candidates’ behalf, members of the fraternity have helped populate banks like J.P. Morgan, BofA and Wells Fargo with fellow alumni – helping them beat odds three times steeper than the Princeton admissions rate."

Just as I suspected! This is why the world is getting dumber with each graduating class. In 1995 medical error killed 100,000 Americans per year. In the latest review medical error killed 442,000 Americans (the 3rd leading cause of ALL death in the US in now HEALTHSCARE). Thus I submit that American healthscare workers are dumber and more dangerous than ever!